Football News: World Cup 2022

World Cup Cash In

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar is almost upon us and I just wonder if anyone is really getting excited for this one? Personally I am finding it very difficult to even get interested for it. Maybe it is having a young baby to think about that is taking my mind off it? Or maybe it is because in the family sweep that we do for all big events all of us got crap teams. I got South Korea, the missus the USA and the kids got Qatar and Japan, so we are unlikely to win it that's for sure! I think the draw was as fixed as a FIFA draw, it just so happens that my aunt who did the draw this time conveniently pulled out Brazil for her husband. I wonder whether she used the fridge and radiator method to distinguish the balls?

Anyway, I digress, the World Cup itself is, as we all know, little more than a money grab, but this one is particularly distasteful. There are so many reasons why it should never have been awarded to Qatar. In fact I think it pays to remind ourselves of them here.

1. The lies about holding it in the heat. It was clearly always going to be impossible to hold it in the summer, something which I am certain FIFA knew about and colluded with Qatar over it. I am sure we can all draw our conclusions as to why they would do that. The technology simply does not exist yet to cool the stadium properly in order to enable football to be played properly. That meant there were always going to be only a couple of possibilities; moving it to the cooler time of year or changing the game to play quarters rather than halves. Splitting it into 4 sections would enable the players to rest and hydrate enough to be able to face the heat. That would have been enough combined with current-level technology to cool the temperature enough for it to work.

2. Infrastructure. The cost of the tournament with everything having to be built from scratch is insane. With the world in the midst of a financial crisis it really feels distasteful.

3. Moving the football calendar around. There was yet another look at making the game into a 4 quarters, rather than 2 halves, sport as FIFA like the idea of 2 extra sets of advertising slots to sell, but they failed to get agreement. Instead they went with moving the entire football calendar around to suit the World Cup. I think the only league not affected is Major League Soccer, which is, at best, a minor league. The mess that has ensued is all down to FIFA. It is not just moving around the fixtures to create a space midseason, it is also the way it seems to have affected so many players mentally, as they seem diffident and afraid of getting hurt and missing out. Understandable when you see the amount of players that are going to miss it due to injury.

4. The LGBT issue. How can you have a 'World Cup' that excludes such a large section of society? It is bad enough that players feel unable to come out to society but to compound issues by meaning they would actually be under the threat of arrest if they were picked for their national team that goes to the World Cup, is disgraceful. FIFA have been so flippant over the whole issue, treating it like it really does not matter. But it should matter, events like the World Cup should be inclusive. They should be about bringing people together and celebrating our differences. It is no wonder players are so afraid to come out, the world of football is still stuck in the 1950s.

5. The workers. Tens of thousands have gone 'missing', though of course FIFA and Qatar claim only a few have actually died. No one seems to care because they are poor, but this event has been literally responsible for those deaths. FIFA has genuine blood on its hands and should be ashamed of itself, as should Gareth Southgate with his comments about the workers wanting the football to be played. Because of course he has spoken to all the families of those that died and checked with them too I am sure. If ever there was a reason to sack Southgate, those sickening comments of his should have been it.

Though it is not all bad, it has shown what hypocritical pri...people the likes of Gary Neville and David Beckham are. All those happy to talk about how it should never have been held there, only to then take the Qatari oil money to commentate on it and advertise it. It is not like they even need the money, a bit like Lionel Messi deciding to be the face of Saudi Arabia's tourism and then a brand ambassador for Byju just days after they announced they were sacking 2500 people to save money. Probably saving the money to pay for Messi's salary. Let's face it, the poor little fella must need the money after all those years of being paid the pittance of a mere 1 million euros a week while at Barcelona.

So, after all that what reason is there to bother watching the World Cup? It is not like international football is actually any good these days, particularly compared to top level club football. Nor is it because any of the teams we got in the sweep have a chance. There is probably more chance of England winning it than any of those and they have to operate with the handicap of being managed by a useless cretin in a waistcoat, who picks 15 right-backs in every squad but still is unable to find a place for the best right-back in the world (just look where he is compared to the other players in the Premier League on the diagram on this page). Though you would have to fancy them to progress, after all the quality in the tournament has been so diluted by extra teams that even Wales were able to qualify. Not Scotland though, the quality level has not quite fallen that far!

In the end, the only point of interest will be seeing which players that have been playing poorly for their club sides will suddenly look like the players we know they actually are. Have the likes of Virgil van Dijk been terrible this season because they are worried about missing out on the World Cup through injury?

Mostly though it is just going to be about getting it out of the way so club football can resume and we can all get back to enjoying football without worrying about whose blood money has paid for it all and how many workers have died to build the stadia. Oh unless you are Spanish of course, in which case you have a few more years of Saudi money buying the Spanish Super Cup to look forward to. Or follow Paris Saint-Germain, in which case your entire team is owned and paid for by the same people who have paid for this World Cup. Or a Newcastle United fan, in which case you are too lacking in morals to care about where the money came from or which journalists got murdered by your owners, so long as they spend money on your team. In fact, PSG and Newcastle fans are probably really looking forward to this World Cup in Qatar. They are no doubt banging the FIFA drum and saying it is just about the football and everything else should be forgotten.

I know people will say that politics should be kept out of sport, but how can you keep them separate when countries like Qatar, Russia and Saudi Arabia use them as a political tool? And how can the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, whose families relied on the money they sent home, be considered mere politics? Their only crime was to try and earn a living to escape the poverty they grow up in.

Written by Tris Burke November 06 2022 06:30:21